1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable communication device such as a portable telephone set and, more particularly, to a communication device which is designed to solely perform photographing, transmission, and the like of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has been realized to transmit and receive a static image at a high speed by using a portable communication device such as a portable telephone set, an armature handy phone (PHS), or an armature radio system on the basis of an increase in data communication rate and progress in digital image compression technique in digital mobile communication.
For example, a user can transmit a static image photographed by herself/himself from a digital portable telephone set to a personal computer connected to a telephone line by one method of the following methods (a), (b), and (c).
(a) A digital still camera is connected to a portable telephone set through a dedicated cable, and the static image photographed by the digital still camera is transmitted from the portable telephone set.
(b) A personal computer, having a digital video input terminal, in which video capture software is installed is connected to a digital video camera through a digital video cable, and an image sequence or moving image photographed by the digital video camera is captured to the personal computer as static images by the video capture software. The personal computer is connected to a portable telephone set through a dedicated cable, and the static images captured in the personal computer are transmitted from the portable telephone set.
(c) A personal computer having a digital still camera built therein is connected to a portable telephone set through a dedicated cable, and a static image photographed by the built-in camera is transmitted from the portable telephone set.
However, according to any one of these methods, and a digital still camera, a digital video camera, or a personal computer are required other than a portable telephone set. For this reason, the portable telephone set cannot solely photograph a static image and transmit the image.
In these methods, for example, when a user wants to photograph her/his face, a surrounding landscape, or the like during speech communication through a portable telephone set, the user must operate both the portable telephone set and the camera. For this reason, the operation becomes cumbersome. In addition, during speech communication through a portable telephone set, in order to perform photographing at a desired angle, it is considerably difficult to change the directions of the digital still camera, the digital video camera, and the personal computer and recognize present angles by seeing the display units of the digital still camera, the digital video camera, and the personal computer.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and has as its object to make it possible to photograph and transmit an image by only a portable communication device such as a portable telephone set, a PHS, or an armature radio device and to easily photograph the image at a desired angle during an interaction using the portable communication device.
In order to solve this problem, the present applicant proposes a portable communication device such as a portable telephone set, a PHS, and an armature radio device, including: image pickup means; an input terminal for inputting an image from the outside; display means for displaying the image; image switching means for performing a switching operation in which any one of an image photographed by the image pickup means and the image input from the input terminal is displayed on the display means and transmitted from the portable communication device; and an output terminal for outputting the image photographed by the image pickup means.
In this portable communication device, image pickup means, display means for displaying an image, and image input switching means being capable of switching the image displayed on this display means and transmitted from the portable communication device to an image photographed by the image pickup means are arranged in the portable communication device itself.
Therefore, since the image photographed by the image pickup means of the portable communication device itself can be transmitted from the portable communication device, the portable communication can solely photograph and transmit the image.
It is sufficient to change the direction of the image pickup means of the portable communication device itself is satisfactorily changed in order to change a photographing angle, and it is sufficient to see an image displayed on the display means of the portable communication device itself in order to check a present angle. For this reason, photographing can be easily performed at a desired angle even during an interaction using the portable communication device.
In addition, an input terminal for inputting an image from the outside is arranged in the portable communication device. In the image input switching means, an image displayed on the display means and transmitted from the portable communication device can be switched to an image input from the input means.
Therefore, an image output from an external device can be displayed on the display means of the portable communication device and can also be transmitted from the portable communication device (with respect to the display, the portable communication device is used as a display unit).
Furthermore, in the portable communication device, since an output terminal for outputting an image photographed by the image pickup means, the image photographed by the image pickup means can also be output from the output terminal and recorded on an external device or displayed on an external display unit (i.e., the portable communication device is used as an electronic camera).
In this portable communication device, as an example, it is preferable that the image pickup means is rotatably connected to the body of the portable communication device.
In this manner, in order to change a photographing angle, since it is sufficient to rotate only the image pickup means without changing the direction of the body of the portable communication device, it is more easy to perform photographing at a desired angle.
In this portable communication device, as an example, it is more preferable to detachably connect the image pickup means to the body of the portable communication device with a plug.
In this manner, this plug is removed (i.e., the image pickup means is removed from the body of the portable communication device), an extension cable is connected to the plug, and the image pickup means and the body of the portable communication device are connected to each other through the extension cable, so that the direction of the image pickup means can be freely changed, it is more further easy to perform photographing at a desired angle.
In the portable communication device, as an example, it is preferable to make the display means to display an image and to display information (in other words, information to be displayed when speech communication is performed by the portable communication device) obtained in a standard operation of the portable communication device commonly and to further include display switching means for performing a switching operation in which any one of the image and the information obtained in the standard operation is displayed on the display means.
In this manner, in comparison with a case in which display means for displaying an image and display means for displaying information obtained in a standard operation are independently arranged, the portable communication device can be decreased in size.
In this portable communication device, as an example, it is preferable to include image pickup means for photographing an image sequence as image pickup means, to arrange a video input terminal and a video output terminal as an input terminal and an output terminal, and to further include static image capture means to capture a static image from an image sequence or memory image and image-sequence/static image switching means to perform a switching operation in which any one of the image sequence and the static image captured by the static image capture means is transmitted from the portable communication device.
In this manner, an image sequence photographed by image pickup means, an image sequence reproduced from an external VTR and input from the video input terminal, or an image sequence photographed by an external video camera and input from the video input terminal can be displayed on the display means and can be transmitted from the portable communication device.
In addition, these image sequences can also be transmitted as static images.
Furthermore, an image sequence photographed by the image pickup means can also be output from the video output terminal and recorded on an external VTR or displayed on the screen of an external television set (i.e., the portable communication device is used as a video camera).
In this portable communication device, as an example, it is preferable to further include storing means for storing an image and transmission/storage switching means for performing a switching operation in which the image is transmitted from the portable communication device or stored in the storing means.
In this manner, an image photographed by the image pickup means and an image input from the input terminal can be stored in the portable communication device and then transmitted without being immediately transmitted from the portable communication device.
In the image input switching means, the display switching means, the image sequence/static image switching means, and the transmission/storage switching means, as an example, it is preferable to arrange buttons for performing instruction in a switching operation and processing means for performing the switching operation on the basis of the operations of the buttons.
In this manner, a user can arbitrarily perform the switching operation by operating the buttons.
In this portable communication device, as an example, it is preferable to also make the display means to display an image received by the portable communication device also.
In this manner, since the image received by the portable communication device is displayed on the display means of the portable communication device itself, the received image can also be displayed by only the portable communication device.